Proposed GIS Project for West Boylston

What Is GIS?

GIS stands for Geographical Information System. A GIS is essentially a database
used for creating maps. However, when used in conjunction with GIS software,
it is really much more than "just" mapping software. Using GIS data, you can:

In addition to the host of environmental and scientific
applications GIS has, it could be extremely useful for historical
applications. Digitizing and
georeferencing old maps could show interesting trends in:

population migration over time

how farming has developed in an area

population shifts after the taking of land by eminent
domain for roads, dams and reservoirs

Like a number of small towns across during the 20th
century, West Boylston, Massachusetts was forced to rebuild itself when the
Metropolitan District Commission decreed in the late 1800s that parts of the
town (and neighboring Boylston, Sterling and Clinton) would have to be taken
for a reservoir for Boston and the rest of eastern Massachusetts.

When you decide to start a GIS project, the first thing you need to do
is to develop a question that manipulating GIS data will answer. To do a
GIS project on the historical impact of the Wachusett Reservoir on West Boylston,
we could ask the following question:

Where are the streets that existed in West Boylston, MA in
1892, relative to the Wachusett Reservoir that was built in the center of town
in 1906?

Data Coverages

1855 -- roads and railroads, streams
and watersheds in the Nashua River basin in West Boylston

1892 -- elevations in West Boylston

1992 -- roads and railroads, streams
and watersheds, and elevations in the same area

The state of Massachusetts has an extensive set of
modern data coverages at http://www.state.ma.us/mgis/massgis.htm. However, it has little in the way of antique
maps and no historic data coverages. For a real project, the 1855 map would be digitized and completely georeferenced
(while many of the roads in West Boylston have moved over the years, one set of
train tracks are in the same location now that they were 150 years ago, so
there is at least some basis for comparison). There is a good topological map from 1892 that would be digitized and
georeferenced to show the "before the reservoir" elevations in the area.

Description of the Project Data

Coverage Name

Feature Types

Contents

topo1892

Polygons

Defines elevations, tics and study area from the 1892
topographic map

roads1855

Arcs

Defines and codes all roads and train tracks from the 1855 town
map.

streams1855

Arcs

Identifies all streams from the 1855 town map

wtrshds1855

Polygons

Identifies ponds from the 1855 town map

roads1992

Arcs

Defines and codes all roads and train tracks from the 1992
Massachusetts GIS Web Site.

As the three coverages were based on maps created at
different times, they undoubtably have different scales and projections. Great care would need to be taken to be sure
the data is correct and the same units are in force across the databases before
merging any of the data.